Should the wheels on a limited awd rotate freely...

[hoffmanmark]

I have a 2004 LMtd and it had an alignment issue. Took it to Dallas Alignment today and they sorted out the issue. The truck now tracks better and. O more rubbing. However, Vince, the tech that worked on it said with the truck on the lift he was unable to rotate the wheel for toe adjustment. It was in neutral and both sides behaved the same. He took the wheel off to see if a brake piston was stuck. He open the pads away from the rotor and it still was difficult to turn. They put the wheel back on and it took two guys to rotate it. My question to all of you is this: with an all wheel drive in neutral should the wheel rotate freely?

Thanks

 

[Ida4runner]

two wheels off the ground= no spin. one wheel off the ground= spin, don't ask me why.

 

[Inv4drZm]

two wheels off the ground= no spin. one wheel off the ground= spin, don't ask me why.

With both tires off the ground you would be trying to spin the driveshaft going to the t-case vs just one side of the differential with one tire off, one on.

 

[nm_alien]

V8 - V6? I don't know if having the full-time 4WD in the V8 with it's special center diff / transfer case would be the cause of this. If it's the part time system, was it in 2WD or 4WD mode? This could cause issues as well.

 

[hoffmanmark]

It’s a V-8 all wheel drive. I will be calling the dealer and to talk to a tech.

 

[Morphyne]

The wheels should not spin. If the tech would have thrown the t-case into neutral they would have spun. Just experienced this last weekend on a CV rebuild

 

[IanB]

I had just the front jacked up on my GX470 (same drivetrain) the other day, and I was able to spin either front tire freely, but I didn't pay any attention to if the opposite tire spun at the same time as the one I was spinning.

 

[RonJR]

Lot of misinformation here. Here's what should happen.

Assume transmission is in Park.
1) With 3 wheels on the ground, the lifted wheel will not spin.
2) With two front (or rear) wheels lifted, spinning one wheel will turn the other wheel in the opposite direction. Should be easy to do by hand.
3) With two wheels on one side lifted
--a) with center diff unlocked, other wheel will turn opposite direction, with more difficulty than (2) above.
--b) with center diff locked, wheels will not turn

If transmission is in neutral with center diff unlocked, lifting a single wheel will allow it to spin, but it will feel stiff, since you have to turn the drive shaft and two differentials. With center diff locked, it will not spin.

I expect the only thing you're dealing with here is ignorance, not mechanical problems.

Easy way to think about open diffs is as a system with 3 inputs/outputs. (Drive shaft, two axle shafts). Any two can turn with the 3rd one locked, but if two are locked nothing turns. The center diff is the same (two drive shafts and transmission input shaft). However, if a diff is locked, all 3 shafts turn together, or nobody turns.

 

[TooHappy]

2) With two front (or rear) wheels lifted, spinning one wheel will turn the other wheel in the opposite direction. Should be easy to do by hand.

I can confirm this as I just did it yesterday on my 04 V8 4wd while I was doing the front calipers.

Thanks for the info, RonJR.